Verteidigt euer vaterland euer heim, eure lieben gege den Bolschewismus... [Defend our Fatherland, our home, our lives because Bolshevism means death]

Post First World War German anti-bolshevist poster issued by Vereinigung zur Bekampfung des Bolscheivismus [Alliance to Combat Bolshevism] c.1919. The poster features the image of a skeleton, encased in fire, symbolising death, clutching at German civilians in a burning town beneath. The title and text are positioned beneath this image and are translated as 'Defend your Fatherland, your home, your loved ones against Bolshevism. It is the death of all freedom, all order and of peace.' The 1919 campaign for the German National Assembly stimulated propagandists on both the Right and the Left, which manifested itself in a classic battle of slogans and images plastered to the walls of German cities. On one side, the proletariat created posters calling for a restoration of order in the streets and, on the other, posters called for revolution. Similar in style, the propagandists produced posters that are purposefully crude, dark and expressionistic. Each poster tackles the problems of hunger, unemployment and exploitation left in the wake of the War with the intent to capture the hearts and minds of a divided and conquered German public. Johannes Safis was a poster artist and graphic designer. He came to prominance in 1919 and is last mentioned in 1928. During the 1920s he was a successful poster designer.